A rising female detective with an emotional attachment to a gangster is pitched into a world of danger

★★★★ ITV, Friday, 30 September, 9pm

THE SCRIPT for this new ITV thriller was several years in gestation. It was time well spent because writers Gaby Chiappe and Alexander Perrin have come up with a taut gripper that has emotional punch.

Karla Crome, Robert James-Collier, Lindsey Coulson and Noel Clarke

Karla Crome plays Nancy Devlin, a detective with a difference. She is inextricably linked to gangster Frank Le Saux – an affecting turn from Philip Glenister. Le Saux was a father figure to Nancy during her turbulent childhood. Meanwhile, his daughter, Hayley (Laura Haddock), became her best friend.

This compromising relationship has survived her rise to distinction as a detective sergeant. When we first meet Nancy she is being paraded before colleagues after saving her boss, Kevin O’Dowd (Downton‘s Robert James-Collier), from a lethal attack.

Nancy’s tracked by a killer

However, Nancy is also in the habit of giving Frank a wink if he ever comes under investigation.

When Frank then contacts her because he is in trouble, Nancy’s career is suddenly under threat, to say nothing of her life. As she struggles to avoid being implicated in a murder investigation, she is also being tracked by a killer.

Laura Haddock as Hayley

The Level, which refers to an area of Brighton – where the six-part series is set – and the idea of being on the level, is a very effective thriller. It is fast and tense without implausibly stretching the story.

We’ve seen Karla Crome in series such as the excellent Prisoners’ Wives and Misfit. She has no trouble holding the limelight here. Laura Haddock, usually seen in big-budget nonsense like Da Vinci’s Demons, is spot on as the ballsy badgirl who was once close to Nancy. [Read more…]

Rating: ★★★ITV: starts Thursday, 4 September, 9pmStory:Detective sergeant Sean Stone is sidelined into the Missing Persons Bureau, where he works alongside analyst Ruth Hattersley in trying to spot those missing people who may be prone to fall victim to serial killers.

THE INFLUENCE of the Nordic invasion continues. First there was Saga Noren in The Bridge, now we have DS Sean Stone in ITV’s new crime series, Chasing Shadows. He’s well-named because he has the charm and appeal of a pebble.

Like Saga, Sean – played by Reece Shearsmith – is socially awkward, unable to lie and a misfit. Cue raised eyebrows, outraged expressions from people he meets, and a furious boss.

It is Sean’s inability to massage the facts at a press conference, during which he suggests a murder victim could have been saved, that prompts his guvnor to boot him out of his job and into Missing Persons.

Sean – quirky and annoying

Here almost the first thing he says to his new colleague, analyst Ruth Hattersley (Alex Kingston), is

Loner – DS Sean Stone (Reece Shearsmith)

‘Are you married?’ Ruth is flummoxed. Then he insists they drive to meetings in separate cars because he ‘likes to think’.

You get the picture. Sean is quirky, wacky and pretty annoying.

Saga is not annoying. This is because she is a more rounded character, rather than a collection of traits.

Disobeying instructions

This four-parter is one of those shows where you kind of know what they were trying to do, but don’t pull it off. Sean is constantly charging off on his own, disobeying instructions and rubbing everyone up the wrong way. He’s a one-dimensional hero.

It is also unbelievable that someone this professionally and socially grating would be left to blunder around jeopardising investigations and offending everyone – ‘I don’t need your help,’ he tells Ruth. His new boss DI Prior (Noel Clarke) is also on the warpath.

Saga Noren is abrupt and socially inept, particularly with grieving relatives, but she is adored by viewers because, though flawed, her personal struggle and shortcomings make her hugely appealing.

Serial killers or multiple murderers?

Protagonists who are brilliant oddballs do work when well created, such as the ‘high-functioning

On the hunt – Sean is shown round an abandoned building

sociopath’ Sherlock, or obsessive-compulsive Monk, or that blunt scalpel House.

In fairness, the opening 45 minutes of Chasing Shadows covers a lot of story – particularly, the hunt for a missing teenage girl, Taylor, who may have been targeted by a killer – so that Sean is barely developed and one dimensional.

He does seem to have a carer at home to help him, but no sooner have we met her than we’re being taken through a disused buildings on the trail of killers and bodies.

The most intriguing part of the premise is Sean Stone’s determination to look for patterns, with which he is obsessed, in the profiles of the mis-pers (missing persons to you) to see if they were vulnerable to serial killers. Or multiple killers, as Sean prefers to call them – they’re ‘not fascinating, evil geniuses’, he says, they’re the opportunistic killer next door.

This is a refreshing break from the tedious Hannibal Lecter fixation of many serial killer stories. It would be great if writer Rob Williams were able to develop this side of the drama, along with Sean’s character. There are just three episodes to go.

Welcome to CrimeTimePreview‘s series of interviews with authors about their TV and reading habits.

• PETER ROBINSON is the author of the Inspector Banks novels – the fourth series of which has just started on ITV (see the post below). A multi-award-winning novelist, he was born in Yorkshire and now divides his time between Toronto and Richmond, North Yorkshire. We brought him in for questioning, and here he makes a full and frank confession of his criminal viewing and reading habits…

• ADRIAN McKINTY is one of the most acclaimed new crime writers from across the Irish Sea, routinely mentioned alongside Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and John Connolly. His series of edgy thrillers about Catholic detective Sean Duffy and the character’s exploits while working in the none-too-comfortable surroundings of the RUC during the Troubles, and later MI5, are developing a big following and have been hugely praised by reviewers. These include The Cold Cold Ground, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone and Gun Street Girl. Here, he reveals his favourite TV shows, characters and authors…

• WE’VE dragged one of Britain’s major crime practitioners in for questioning. Multi-award-winning IAN RANKIN is the creator of Edinburgh detective inspector John Rebus, the tenacious but chippy hero of bestsellers such as Black and Blue, Fleshmarket Close and Resurrection Men. The character was turned into a series by STV with first John Hannah and then Ken Stott portraying him. ITV filmed Rankin’s standalone novel Doors Open in 2012. After retiring Rebus in Exit Music, he introduced his readers to Malcolm Fox in The Complaints, before bringing Rebus back in 2012’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave.

• Manchester-based crime writer CATH STAINCLIFFE is interrogated below for evidence of her TV viewing and reading activities. She writes the novels based on the Scott & Bailey series, which stars Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones and is soon to return to ITV – with her latest book about the female detectives being Bleed Like Me. Cath is also the author of the Sal Kilkenny private eye stories and creator and scriptwriter of Blue Murder, which was on ITV and starred Caroline Quentin.

• Hauled in for questioning is British crime writer and Guardian reviewer LAURA WILSON, who is currently working on her 10th novel. Laura, whose books include the DI Stratton series among other mysteries set in the recent past, talks about her TV and reading habits, from Cagney & Lacey to Agatha Christie…

• ZOE SHARP wrote her first novel when she was 15. It was not until 2001, however, after she had tried her hand at jobs ranging from van driver to newspaper ad sales to motoring correspondent, that she finally publisher her breakout Charlie Fox novel Killer Instinct. Fox, the self-defence instructor with a shady military background, has proved hugely popular with readers through nine novels and has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox TV. We brought Zoë in for questioning to see who she would like to see playing Charlie on screen, and what TV shows tick the right boxes for her…

• CrimeTimePreview apprehended SIMON KERNICK, one of Britain’s most exciting thriller writers to grill him about his viewing proclivities. He arrived on the crime scene with his acclaimed novel The Business of Dying, a terrific story about a corrupt cop who moonlights as a hitman. His authentic thrillers are basedon research with members of Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the Organised Crime Agency. He has just finished writing his latest book, which will be called Siege.

• SOPHIE HANNAH, whose novel The Point of Rescue was recently turned into the drama Case Sensitive by ITV1, is the author of internationally bestselling psychological thrillers – Little Face, Hurting Distance, The Other Half Lives and A Room Swept White. CrimeTimePreview recently brought her in to be questioned about her addiction to Class A plotting on television…

• Scottish author TONY BLACK, creator of Gus Dury in stories such as Gutted and Long Time Dead.

• Belfast crime writer SAM MILLAR, author of books such as The Redemption and the award-winning memoir On the Brinks.

• Crime novelist PAULINE ROWSON, author of the Marine series of mysteries, is pulled into CrimeTimePreview headquarters for questioning.

• Award-winning British novelist ANN CLEEVES is a serial crime writer, with her collections including amateur sleuths George & Molly, Inspector Ramsay, the soon-to-be-televised Vera Stanhope and the recent Shetland Island Quartet (now a BBC1 series with Douglas Henshall). CrimeTimePreview pulls her in for questioning about her TV habits…

• We brought thriller writer MATT HILTON into headquarters for questioning about his TV and reading activities.

• ALINE TEMPLETON is the author of the series of novels about DI Marjory Fleming, set in Scotland. Her stand-alone mysteries include Past Praying For, The Trumpet Shall Sound and Shades of Death. She lives in Edinburgh. She was brought into CrimeTimePreview HQ for questioning about her TV viewing habits…

• Award-winning crime author STEPHEN BOOTH has written 11 mysteries involving the detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry with a distinctive, sometimes menacing Peak District setting. He was a newspaper and magazine journalist for 25 years before publishing the first Cooper/Fry novel, Black Dog, in 2000. CrimeTimePreview quizzed him about his criminal viewing activities…